Up Close & Alone [Import]

Burton Cummings | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 8, 2007)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Universal
• ASIN: B000006XXR
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #35,945 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Albert Flasher

2. Timeless Love

3. Stand Tall

4. Sour Suite

5. Break It to Them Gently

6. Laughing

7. Undun

8. Clap for the Wolfman

9. I Will Play a Rhapsody

10. Share the Land

11. Gordon Lightfoot Does Maggie May

12. You Saved My Soul

13. No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature

14. Ferry Cross the Mersey

15. Take One Away

16. I'm Scared

17. Dream of a Child

18. These Eyes/Goodnight Everybody

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars That Voice..., November 23, 2000

By 

S. O'Connor "SJO" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Up Close & Alone (Audio CD)

Burton Cummings has one of the most amazing and individual voices in pop music. This CD captures his vocal agility, interpretation, and power. His piano skills are top-notch, as well. This recording of Burton's voice and piano, captured live in concert, is a fine showcase of a wide range of his best-known material; pre-Guess Who, Guess Who, and post-Guess Who work. "Timeless Love" and "I Will Play a Rhapsody" suffer a bit without the layered harmonies of the original recordings, but the from-the-heart ballads of "Stand Tall," "Dream of a Child," and "Break it To Them Gently" are well-suited to Burton's solo presentation. And Burton doing Gordon Lightfoot singing Rod Stewart's "Maggie May..." is worth a giggle.

If anything is disappointing about this CD, it's that the sound quality isn't the best. I'm not a recording engineer, but the CD is rather "quiet": I need to crank it up really loud to hear all the nuances. It could've been "brighter." But other than that, it's excellent. If you're entranced by this voice, don't pass "Up Close and Alone" by.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a master at work, March 27, 2001

By 

Thomas C. Dolan (Fargo, ND United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Up Close & Alone (Audio CD)

Burton proves in this compilation that he truly is one of the best at the craft. The man has not had the stateside recognition that he deserves, and I hope he is still writing and willing to record. "Sour Suite" is alone worth the price of admission, a classic which most people have never had the pleasure of hearing. His body of work has "worn the years rather well," as he puts it himself, and his enduring songs contrast with much of the junk which passes for music today. The CD is not flawless; the sound is annoyingly "soft," as others have noted, and "Wolfman" could have been omitted (terrible song), but this is great entertainment. "These Eyes" brings me back to 1968 seeing the Guess Who perform live in North Dakota down the road from Winnipeg, just before they hit the big time. This is a "must-have" for the discriminating rock fan, a most pleasurable listen.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solo Performance Excels!, May 5, 2008

By 

Martin A Hogan "Marty From SF" (San Francisco, CA. (Hercules)) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Up Close & Alone (Audio CD)

Most people don't realize that Burton Cummings has been singing professionally since the early sixties. His first success was with a Canadian band called the "Deverons". A few years later, he was the front-man and main songwriter for "The Guess Who". In the middle of the seventies, Cummings went on a solo career and never looked back - kind of.

This performance at the Glenn Gold Theater in Toronto is a no frills evening with Cummings voice and his piano. The sound is impeccable. He manages to capture the magic and immediacy of each some with some truly fanciful playing and clever vocal tricks. Most songs are interspersed with great stories about the time period of the song or a meaningful event, but mostly the album is just great listening.

Burton Cummings manages to rock the house with, "Albert Flasher" and some of his other oldies like, "Clap For The Wolfman" and "No Sugar Tonight". Those Cummings ballads are real tear-jerkers, like, "Timeless Love", "Break It To Them Gently" and the insurmountable, "Stand Tall". Of course, no concert is quite like a one man show that ends with a rousing "These Eyes" and a hearty goodnight to all.